Essay Sample on Nikolai Bukharin's Letter to Stalin

Introduction

'Nikolai Bukharin's Letter to Stalin' was authored on Dec 10, 1937, by Bukharin himself. He was writing the letter to Stalin seeking forgiveness and mercy for his life. Bukharin appeals that he has been arrested with no official process follow-up. In his letter, Bukharin explains that he wishes to cleanse his conscience and prove that he is innocent. He states that everything that happened or purported to have occurred did so without his knowledge. He further claims that he had no option than to confirm that accusation and testimonies of others and to develop them or he would otherwise be seen as the perpetrator of the revolution.

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In his letter, Bukharin explains to Stalin that there is big and bold notion of a general purge; that it is an act of preparing for war. He explains to Stalin that the purge captures the guilty, the suspicious and the potentially suspicious. Bukharin notes that it is easy for someone to speak ill of another person and be believed. He begs Stalin to be open-minded and not think that he is reproaching him. Bukharin acknowledges that he has to pay for the years of struggle against Stalin. He, however, begs Stalin to remember summer 1928 when they were together-Stalin told him they were friends and Bukharin was incapable of intrigue. Bukharin believes that his fate is already sealed and forgiveness is the only thing he wishes from Stalin. Bukharin informs Stalin in his letter that he would rather die than live through the forthcoming trial and if given a chance to choose his death, he would choose to die of poison instead of public shooting. The letter to Stalin shows Bukharin regrets over the deeds he had done. He wishes that Stalin would send him to America or in a camp where he would continue to serve Stalin.

Why Bukharin Has Been Prosecuted for Treason

It is alleged that Bukharin played a crucial role in the Russian revolt and was seen as an associate of the Bolshevik Party's Old Guard. Such a tag made him being one of the men put on trial during Joseph Stalin's show trials held in the mid to late 1930s. Bukharin was to pay with his life for his 'traitorous actions'. Even though Bukharin was not an associate of the Bolshevik Party, he played a crucial role in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Bukharin joined the Bolshevik Party in 1906, and after two years, he became an associate of the Moscow Party Commission. His prominence meant that the Russian law enforcement was logically concerned with him because of his opinions and his professed actions.

Bukharin was put on trial because he disagreed with Stalin's policy. Stalin believed that he was becoming more popular than him. Stalin was shrouded with jealousy on anyone who appeared to have more public appealing than him. Bukharin indicates that Zinoviev, Trotsky and Kamenev were responsible for setting him up. He argues that he was not an 'enemy of the state' as indicated by the interrogators. He was just a victim of circumstances.

Grounds for Appealing Mercy

In his letter, Bukharin explains that he is not guilty of the crimes that he affirmed at the investigation. In relation to what he said at the plenum of the Central Committee, Bukharin explains that one time he heard from someone about the cry, and he thought it was Kuz'min although he never gave it any of serious significance. Bukharin also explains that he knew nothing about the conference or the Riutin platform except when he met Aikhenval who told him they had met and made a report. Bukharin notes that he hid the information out of pity for those individuals; he never intended to cause harm. In his letter, Bukharin pleads that he regarded Stalin with the utmost respect and had not done anything treasonous known to him.

Terror Being Directed Against Some Old Bolsheviks in the Period 1936-1938

Before the 1930s, Bukharin was arrested and later released. He fled to Switzerland where he met Lenin, Zinoviev, Trotsky and Kamenev. Bukharin is said to have returned to Moscow in 1917, ready for revolution. He became a member of the Moscow Soviet and edited 'Spartak', a Bolshevik journal. During the second half of the 1920s, Stalin set the stage for acquiring absolute supremacy by engaging police suppression against opposition components within the Communist Party. The machinery of coercion had in the past been used only against rivals of Bolshevism, not against party members themselves. The initial victims were Politburo members, Grigorii Zinov'ev, Leon Trotskii and Lev Kamenev, who were defeated and chased from the party in late 1927. Stalin then disregarded Nikolai Bukharin, who was convicted as a 'right opposition', for disregarding his policy of coerced collectivisation and constant industrialisation at the expense of the poor. Stalin had eradicated all possible rivalry to his dictatorship by late 1934 and was the unopposed leader of both party and state. Nevertheless, he continued to eradicate the party status and file and to terrorise the whole nation with comprehensive arrests and executions.

The Great Terror was a campaign for political repression in the Soviet Union which happened from 1936 to 1938. The campaign entailed a comprehensive purge of the Communist Party and regime agents, repression of rich landlords and the Red Army administration. During the Great Terror, there were infamous show trial of Stalin's former Bolshevik rivals in 1936-1938 and attained its peak in 1937 and 1938.-during this period, millions of guiltless Soviet civilians were sent off to labour camps or murdered in jail. The excuse for the 'Great Terror' and that instigated show trials was the assassination of Sergei Kirov He was the Bolshevik Party's leader in Leningrad, and most people believed that he would prosper Stalin on his death. Nevertheless, Kirov experienced huge issues among them jealousy from Stalin. It appears that Stalin felt threatened by the young Kirov although they went on summer holiday together. Kirov was the type of a person who could argue with Stalin even in public. Later on, Stalin asked the Politburo for the expulsion of the party to get rid of those who appeared to betray the November 1917 Revolt. Kamenev, Bukharin and Zinoviev were among the Bolshevik Party's Old Guard named in the 'enemies of state' list. Any person associated with these men was also under suspicion. They were placed on trial at profoundly publicized show trials, and the verdict was in no doubt, execution.

By the time Stalin ended the terror in 1939, he had managed to bring both the party and the public to a situation of whole compliance with his administration. Soviet society was so atomised and the civilians so worried of retaliations that mass arrests were no longer essential - the Great Terror results in mass murders of political prisoners by the Soviet secret political law enforcement, the NKVD, in 1941.

Interpretation of the Document

Reasons for Destroying Bukharin

Bukharin's early years of 'unsystematic' education and reading formed a fundamental part of his learning. Most Bolshevik leaders were representatives of the intelligentsia, but few were intellectuals, scholars in the world of philosophies. Most joined revolutionary politics at an early age with constrained formal learning and even those who went to the University joined the student movement just like Bukharin. Bukharin joined Bolshevik at the age of seventeen and had the intellectual curiosity and background including an insight of foreign languages.

Bukharin was one of the key founders of the Bolshevik Revolution that resulted in the creation of the Soviet Union. The reason Stalin destroyed Bukharin was their disagreement over Stalin's policy of collectivisation. Stalin mercilessly pursued him and ultimately had him apprehended, tired and convicted in the one of the infamous Show Trials and executed. Bukharin's wife, Anna, was also sentenced to the Gulag and later exiled. The power and poignancy of the letter that Bukharin wrote to Stalin lie in his refusal to believe that his old ally Stalin was out to kill him. There were numerous reasons to destroy Bukharin. His economic policies were more conservative. He disregarded the notion of a world rebellion and contended that the Party's main precedence ought to safeguard the socialist system that had been advanced in the Soviet Union. Bukharin also contended that communism in the Soviet Union could progress only through an elongated period of improvements. His theory regarding agronomy was not understood by many. Bukharin was certain that small-scale agriculturists only generated sufficient food to feed themselves and proposed the establishment of various instruments to inspire wealthy peasants.

Joseph Stalin alleged to be an active fan of the 'new' Bukharin. It was just a reason for his intricate scheme to eliminate those who had fallen into his disfavor-Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trotsky. Stalin claimed that they were creating discord and menace in the Party. Eventually, Bukharin knew it was nothing but a plot by Stalin to spark a conflict between radical groups, making them fight each other and leave Stalin the sole leader. The evil ply by Stalin made Bukharin declare that Stalin was a dishonest intriguer who subordinated everything to his satisfaction for power. He further noted that Stalin would transform his models to eradicate someone who seemed like a threat. Sooner than later, Bukharin became a victim to Stalin's strategies. He was predestined as a leader of the prominently known 'Right Deviation' party. Stalin noted that the group was dangerous to the establishment of collectivism. Bukharin was eliminated from his high statuses although he continued to occupy some inconsequential posts in the Ministry for the Heavy Machinery and published a magazine of practical transformation.

Benefits of Destroying Bukharin

In 1917, Bukharin was elected the party's central commission after the Bolsheviks acquired power and then, he became an editor for Pravda. When Lenin insisted on approving the Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany and retreating Russia from World War I, Bukharin briefly left his position at Pravada and established a disagreement wing, the Left Communists. After the death of Lenin, Bukharin became a full-fledged member of Lenin's New Economic Policy which facilitates economic transformation and contrasted the program of initiating quick industrialisation and collectivisation in agronomy. For a brief period, Bukharin was associated with Stalin, who used this matter to destabilise his chief opponents, Grigory Zinovyev, Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev. Bukharin would later succeed Zinovyev as the chairman of the Comintern's executive committee. However, Stalin upturned his stand in 1928 and eliminated the platform of imposed collectivisation supported by his overpowered rivals and condemned Bukharin for conflicting it.

Why Destroy Bukharin This Way?

The show trials that occurred in the Soviet Union had a very precise resolve for Stalin. The show prosecutions were not held in underground but were, as the name proposes, in public with overseas journalists invited and were called as a testimony to those in the Soviet Union who were concerned that 'opponents of state' still happened in spite of the 'Red Terror' and that state leaders like Stalin were under threat. In Bukharin's case, it was no doubt that he would be found culpable and would serve the main resolve of Stalin-to get rid of any person who may be a possible enemy to him as a leader.

Ways Their Political Views Were in Opposition

In 1936 when Bukharin returned from exile, he published what would be his last article. He appeared to discredit fascist regimes of all kinds and complexions. Bukh...